Afraid of the Dark?
by Jaromira
Summary: Danny was flying his regular patrol routine when it hit him. Actually, he had been flying, not really paying attention to where he was going... I do not own Danny Phantom.


**Random Fan fiction that I thought of while cleaning out my bath tub. Danny realizes that everyone has a dark side, no matter who they are. Not based on the song Everybody Has a Dark Side by Kelly Clarkson. I knew it would pester me until I wrote it, so, here you go! Takes place a little after Urban Jungle. Danny's P.O.V. One-shot! (Please don't kill me. I'll update the other stuff, too.) Enjoy!**

Danny was flying his regular patrol routine when it hit him.

Actually, he had been flying, not really paying attention to where he was going, slammed into a tree in the park, and fell on a branch when the realization hit him. Everyone had a dark side to their regular personality. Some people's dark sides were sometimes more present then their regular selves, which was a shame. Since Tucker was surprisingly catching up on homework (although Danny suspected he was playing the brand new version of Doomed that had just come out) and Sam had necessary family stuff she didn't want to go to (she would rather patrol Amity Park then spend two hours with her family any day), Danny decided the tree was comfortable and quiet, so he contemplated on the different types of dark sides people possessed, which wasn't usually like him, but, hey, everyone had special moments, even the town hero and celebrity. (Danny didn't really want to have his ghost half be a celebrity, but, life is never fair, is it?)

The first types were ones that were human, common, and just jerkier versions of those people. People like Dash and Paulina had those types of dark sides. Dash's jerky self tended to show up when he was harassing a kid. This often surfaced itself when he was shoving Danny in a locker or making him run. Dash found pure enjoyment out of shoving the supposedly defenseless Danny Fenton, or any other nerd, for that matter, into a locker or any other form of bullying. Dash wasn't always like this, though. When Dash had been helping Danny get to the Op Center and de-shrink himself, Dash had been pretty helpful, even though Danny had to talk some sense into the kid. He had been over reacting because he was smaller than everything else. Danny had been thinking _welcome to my world _at the time. Dash was also genuinely kind to his dog, Pooky. Danny had found it quite humorous when he discovered Dash owned a tiny dog. Dash did look like a caring, responsible owner whenever he threw a Frisbee with his dog, or was with him in the park.

Paulina also had a semi-kinder side to herself. This was even less frequent than Dash's, so it was much harder to pick out. Paulina did tend to be shallow and self conceited, especially towards Sam. Since Sam couldn't stand her for a second, and the two girls never got along, Paulina had used Danny as revenge on Sam during the dance. Danny was grateful he had realized that Sam had been right about her being shallow and gotten over her. Paulina was a completely different person around Danny Phantom, though. She was somewhat kinder, a little bit of a better person, and a tad bit less shallow towards Danny, but that may have been just because Danny Phantom was famous and she had a shrine to him, which disturbed him out a little bit.

Then there were the dark sides Danny didn't want to meet. Those would consist of his Mom, Dad, and Sister. He didn't consider his parent's attacking Danny Phantom their dark sides. They were only trying to protect the town from its protector. Ah, irony was funny at times. His sister had never been rude to him, even when he had been a complete jerk to her out of angry and misunderstanding. Sure, she could be overprotective and a know it all, but she had his best interest at heart, which he knew he sometimes didn't understand until much later, was a huge appreciation on Danny's part, although he would never admit it to anyone, no matter how much they paid him. He would never hear the end of it.

Then, there were the unlucky people. They were the ones whose dark sides had to correspond with ghosts. Only in Amity Park, would you find ghosts having anything to do with evil versions of yourself, he supposed. Vlad's dark side, which was basically his usual attire, was corresponding with that. Once Vlad gained ghosts powers in the accident that was caused by his father, which was a complete accident, Vlad became revenge thirsty, greedy, and selfish. Danny had seen Vlad without his ghost powers, though. It was a shame the only way Vlad could be a decent person was having Danny's family blown up at the Nasty Burger, become completely hopeless and have Vlad rip his ghost half out, thus freeing Danny up to do the same to Vlad, and have Danny turn into an evil ghost bent on destroying the world for the fun of it, all because Danny had to go and possibly cheat on a stupid test and ruin his future. His darker, older, jerky self was still with Clockwork in the ghost zone, and Danny hoped every day that he never broke out. Vlad was capable of decent things, but his ghost half was too dark to allow the good in Vlad come out. It was probably the worst thing about having ghost powers.

Danny and his friends had probably been affected by ghosts in terms of having a dark side the most. There were at least two different dark versions of Danny and Tucker. It really sucked that the people trying to be heroes were at the most risk to turn evil, or be portrayed as villains. Tucker had accidentally wished to have ghost powers due to the fact he was jealous of Danny, which Danny still felt pretty bad about, and a wishing ghost named Desiree had of course gone and made it so, but twisted it into something dark and sinister. Tucker had also been running for president, as to why, Danny was still confused, and of course Danny and Sam hadn't been really listening to him, but trying to help him get the jock boat in a voting sort a sense. Long story short, Lancer took everyone in their first class to the museum, Tucker looked into a sarcophagus, got a minion with a staff, the minion gave Tucker the staff, Tucker turned into a pharaoh, and Danny got the staff back and teleported Casper High from a dimension Tucker created that lead the school into Egypt, and it was total chaos. Danny _had _felt guilty about ignoring Tucker, but then Tucker had started raising his ego way too much, so Sam and Danny walked away and left him to blather on about stuff no one cared about.

Danny had some pretty bad versions of himself too. The one that probably nearly destroyed his hero career in the eyes of Amity Park was when he was controlled by Freak Show. When Sam had told him he stole from a bunch of different places, attacked a police car, and attacked his friends, he had been wracked with guilt for a really long time, and in some cases, he still felt extremely guilty for what he had done. It may have been Freak Show who had controlled him to do a bunch of really horrible things, but it was his fault he hadn't been able to break free of that stupid staff's control. He may not have been as powerful as he was now, but he still wasn't sure if he could break from its grasp. He was glad the orb on top of the staff's stick thing was destroyed, but he wasn't so sure that no one would find it and figure out what to do with it. Those thoughts always made him worry a lot. Of course, there was always the fact he could turn into his evil older self, which he would consider his other dark side. It was always a fear in the back of his head he would do something else really stupid that he wouldn't consider that bad, and he would destroy the people he cared about the most. He vowed himself to be a hero, but he never wanted to see his evil self again. Of course, there was one other evil version he would hate to see even more.

The person with a dark side that had taken its biggest toll had been the most recent. The best people probably had the worst dark sides in his opinion. Sam had been controlled by a ghost. It had been a pretty weird day to start off, but that had made it so much worse. Danny didn't care that he could freeze things or make ice appear with a new ghost power; he just hoped Undergrowth never used Sam as his evil apprentice ever again. He doubted he could attack her, and he would never want to, evil or good. He had been extreme lucky he had his new freezing power at the time, but it still bothered him how Undergrowth had immediately chosen Sam to work for him. He suspected Undergrowth didn't just know Sam loved vegetation. There were plenty of people who loved vegetation. He chuckled at the memory of Sam and Tucker creating huge protests about meat and ultra-recyclo-vegetarianism. It was just when he was starting to gain control of his powers and had decided to become a hero. Maybe Undergrowth had taken Sam because she was the closest? Although, Undergrowth did seem to spend his time on earth, he must have known a couple of ghosts, and he remembered what Johnny had said about Sam and him being a thing, and. Danny smacked himself on his forehead. He was freaking out about the simplest of things, and jumping to ridiculous conclusions. Sam and Danny were friends, just friends.

Danny decided to stop contemplating on everything dark and evil and gloomy and continue his patrol. He was starting to sound a lot like Jazz and Sam. He shuttered at the thought. Danny's joints were starting stiff from sitting for so long, and he would be useless in a fight. He was honestly shocked no ghosts had bothered to attack him. It was a first for a long time, but it was a welcome break from extreme ghost fighting every day. Danny got up and flew on his regular path for patrolling. He suddenly remembered how guilty he had felt when he had done a bunch of evil stuff unwillingly, and if Sam's conscious was anything similar to Danny's, she would be wracked with guilt for too long. Danny made a silent vow to never tell Sam exactly what she had done when Undergrowth had invaded.

**Gah, this turned out so much worse than I originally planned it to be. It was awkward in a lot of places, and I'm sorry that this isn't very good. Danny doesn't exactly seem like the type of person to sound like this. Grr, this wasn't very fun to write, but it would suck even more if I didn't write it. If anyone wants to rewrite it, just message me! I hope someone can write it better than this. Flamers, I still don't want your crap. If you enjoyed, well, good for you, because you would've enjoyed it more than I would.**


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